Insurer Swamped by Liquor Store Claims : Commerce: Markets are favorite targets of looters and arsonists. Businessman says clients report damage of more than $1 million.

Norman Maltz, in a T-shirt and baggy pants, was wrapping up yet another call with a frantic liquor store owner.

“Take care and be safe,” he said. “Oh, don’t stay and defend the store. . . . If there’s trouble, just get out.”

Maltz insures liquor stores--one of the first and favorite targets of looters in the riots that began Wednesday. His N.J. Maltz Insurance Services on Reseda Boulevard in Northridge covers 500 to 600 stores in Los Angeles, about 100 in the areas hardest hit by rioting.

As of Sunday, Maltz figured his claims had topped $1 million.

One woman lost her store when a new shopping center went up in flames. A man locked himself in the back room of his store while looters cleaned out the shelves and trashed the place. A family in Hollywood stood by cringing as thieves picked over its goods.

Hearing such stories from stunned clients was bad enough, but Maltz was seeing claims develop on television.

“When it started,” he said, “I’m watching the news and I see one of my clients!”

On Wednesday night, Maltz saw the coverage of truck driver Reginald Denny being pulled from his big rig and beaten nearly to death by a mob at Florence and Normandie avenues. On the corner was Tom’s Liquor Store, which Maltz insures. He watched as looters smashed their way in and plundered it.

It was not until late the next day that Maltz learned with relief that the owner had fled and was not hurt.

“You can’t help getting tears in your eyes when they tell you these things,” he said.

Maltz has seen better days. He is an independent agent, but is the exclusive carrier in the Los Angeles region of a property-casualty package that Philadelphia-based Reliance Insurance Co. offers for liquor stores.

All day Thursday and Friday, Maltz’s fax machine was burning with bad news, as he dispatched claim after claim to Reliance and other companies. Over the weekend, the fax machine got a rest, so Maltz was able to work from home Sunday.

Insurers said it was pointless to send more claims until employees had a chance to cut down the backlog. As of midday Sunday, more than 30 claims had stacked up for Maltz.

He called his answering machine every couple of hours and then got back to worried clients. Many had no claims to report but just wanted reassurance. Some wanted to increase their coverage on the spot, but Maltz had to tell them that his companies were not writing any more insurance until the city was under control.

To Maltz, one of the worst dangers of the unrest is that it will cause insurance companies to abandon the core of the city.

“If everybody shut down,” he asked, “then where would we be?”